worried the power bill for LED lights and cooling makes vertical farming unprofitable here
3 Answers
Electricity cost is the single biggest challenge for vertical farming in India and for many projects it is indeed close to a dealbreaker. Indoor vertical farms replace free sunlight with LED lights and then must also run air conditioning to remove the heat those lights produce, so power is the dominant running cost month after month. In a country with abundant sunlight and relatively high commercial power tariffs, this puts vertical farms at a structural cost disadvantage against polyhouses and open field that use the sun for free. It can be partly managed with energy-efficient LEDs, good insulation, solar power where feasible, and focusing only on the highest value crops, but it rarely disappears. The honest position is that unless you have access to cheap or self-generated power and a premium market, the economics are very hard. Before committing, model the power bill realistically at your local commercial tariff for a full year, including cooling, and check whether the crop price can cover it. Speak to operators who have run through a hot season.
We tried to offset with rooftop solar. It helped but did not cover the AC load in peak summer. Power is the real boss of this business.
My honest take after costing it, in India the sun is free, fighting that with electric light is an uphill battle unless your produce sells very high.